Ralston Valley [e]Xpress Newspaper

Well they’ve done it again, for the fourth time. The legendary Heavy Rock band Disturbed’s new album, Asylum debuts at number one atop the Billboard 200 with an estimate of 179,000 records sold. Next to it is the Now 35 compilation, at No. 2 with 105,000 units bought. Eminem’s Recovery maintains its spot at No. 3 with 93,000. This is the fourth consecutive time that the band’s album has made #1. The last three albums that made number one are Indestructible in 2008, Ten Thousand Fists in 2005, and Believe in 2002. From which only two other bands have accomplished: Metallica and the Dave Matthews band.

The Alaotra Grebe (Tachybaptus rufolavatus), also known as Delacour’s Little Grebe or Rusty Grebe, was a grebe endemic to Lake Alaotra and surrounding lakes in Madagascar. The last sighting (which may have been a hybrid with the Little Grebe) was in 1985 and the species was declared extinct in 2010.

The species was officially declared extinct in 2010, 25 years after the last confirmed sighting. Although some species have been classified as extinct and later have been found to still exist, Leon Bennun, the director of the conservation organization BirdLife International has stated that “no hope remains for this species” and blames the “unforeseen consequences” of human action.

This extinction brings the number of confirmed bird extinctions since 1600 to 162. Additionally, one bird species in eight is believed to be “threatened”, a total of 1,240 species. The previous confirmed extinction of a bird species was of the Liverpool Pigeon (Caloenas maculata) in 2008.

After nearly 7 months of many anticipated games, the 2010 NHL finals are finally here. Coming from the windy city representing the West are the Chicago Blackhawks and from the East is the City of Brotherly Love, the Philadelphia Flyers. Each team has not won a Stanley Cup in over three decades and soon one of the two team’s curses are going to be broken. After the Flyers stunning playoff run, defeating the 2nd seeded New Jersey Devils and from coming back after a 3 to 0 series league against the favored Briuns, the Stanley Cup seems to be in the rights of Philly. Chicago is also looking at the cup after sweeping the number one San Jose Sharks and add another Banner to their home rink. Game 1 will be televised on Saturday May 29th at  8′o clock eastern time. Place your bets.

Recent news from the National Football League reveals that the oldest player in the NFL, Jeff Feagles has announced his retirement. Jeff Feagles was the punter for the New York Giants for 7 years, the Seattle Seahawks for 5, the Cardinals and the Eagles for 4, and the Patriots of 2. The 44 year old punter as said before was the oldest player in the NFL and well respected punter throughout the league. Feagles holds the league-record 352 consecutive games and a record of 22 seasons. The main reason for Feagles retirement was that he couldn’t handle it anymore. His body cannot take much disipline and strength anymore and his getting too old for the sport.
Feagles was the NFL’s second oldest player this past season, behind New Orleans’ kicker John Carney. The now 46-year-old Carney was replaced late in the season by Garrett Hartley and now serves the Saints as a kicking consultant.

It was a disaster for the last two seasons for the Colorado Avalanche. Large number of losses, star players injured, and very incefficent staff members had brought the Avs to a standstill for a long time. Now everything has chaged for the best with the 2010 season. After an outstanding regular season, the Avs have clinched the final playoff birth in the Western Conference. It was a two days since the Avs had upsetted the heavily favored Sharks on Sunday after a deflected goal in overtime had set the Avalanche 2 points ahead of Calgary. The only thing the team needed now was one more win and for Calgary to lose. Yesterday, news had gone around that the Flames had lost to San Jose 2 – 1 which was big news for Colorado. The only thing left was to win against Northwest Division Rivals, The Vancouver Canucks. It was a long game that lasted back and forth until it reached the shoot out. After 3 misses from Vancouver, the NHL’s top rookie, Matt Duchene had a chance to make an even bigger name for himself as a hero of Colorado hockey. He then emrged victorious with teh Avs jumping over him and goalie Craig Anderson. The Avalanche have entered the Playoffs 12 of 14 years.

Recent international news from India has reviled that the nation has successfully weaponized the Bhut Jolokia Pepper aka, the Ghost Chili. The world’s hottest pepper was in process of becoming a non lethal weapon after its first production in 2009. The bhut jolokia pepper, primarily found in the Bangladesh and the northeastern states of India, is rated at 1,040,000 Scoville units, almost twice the strength of the second place pepper, the red savina, and up to 20 times as hot as the average jalapeño. Scientists are trying to use the bhut jolokia in several practical military applications. The chili will be used as a major tear gas gernade aganist terriorists or other major disturbances.

It was nearly three years and two months ago that former Broncos’ CB Darrent Williams was murdered after the early hours of January 1st 2007. And after over 3 years of crime scene processing, the conviction has been made.
Williams’ killer, Willie D. Clark was convicted of murder after the final courtroom meeting this week. Williams was killed at about 2 a.m. on New Year’s Day 2007. Prosecutors said Clark fired the fatal shots from an SUV that pulled up beside the rented limo. The reason behind this killing was due to the fact of disrespect between Clark and Williams. Clark was angry over an altercation involving friends of Williams and friends of Clark that occurred in a nightclub just before the shooting, prosecutors said. A member of Williams’ group had sprayed champagne on New Year’s partiers. But no matter how much someone tried, the conviction was made. Williams was planning on returning to his hometown Fort Worth, Texas to lecture kids on staying out of gangs, which ironically was killed by a gang member. Darrent Williams was 24 years old.

Activists use building material to shutter the entrance to the Eurobank branch in central Athens.

Economy is the only thing anyone hears on the news these days. Raising gas prices, food shortages, and shortage on resources. As for Greece, they took matters into their own hands. Read more…

So far in the Medal counts in the XXI Winter Olymipics, Germany is leading the competition with 9 medals total (3 Gold, 4 Silver, 2 Bronze), in secound is our own USA with 8 medals (2 Gold, 2 Silver, and 4 Bronze) and in third place is the country of France with 7 ( 2 G0ld, 1 Silver, and 4 Bronze).

Even with the Germans leading the Winter games, the USA looks forward to bring on a few more with Lyndsey Vonn in action with her skiing talents, Shaun White looks for another 2nd Gold Medal after acheiving his first back in Torino, and both the Men and Woman Hockey teams look ready enough to compete for Gold Medals and end Canada’s Gold streak.

Cardinals QB Kurt Warner announes friday his retirement from the NFL after 12 seasons and 3 super bowl apperances. His retirement ends an incredible story of rags to riches.

Legacy in History

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